esca

Forms

esca f (plural esche)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ēsca (“food; bait”).^[2][3][1][4] DELI and Battaglia call it a learned word, but the LEI counts it among the popular continuations of the Latin noun, which survives in every Romance language: Old French esche, Old Occitan esca, Catalan esca, Spanish yesca, Portuguese isca, Sardinian esca, Friulian èsche and Romanian iască.^{[5][6][4][2][7]} From Italy it spread to Dalmatian and Albanian.^[4][8]

The Latin word is derived from edō (“to eat”).^[5][2][9] It meant food, then, in the fishermen's language, bait, and also the tinder that feeds a fire;^[2][8][10] Isidore explains that a dry fungus bears this name because it is the fuel and food of fire.^[2][8][10] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Italic *ēsskā from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”), and takes the long vowel to be old, as Lithuanian ėskà (“food, fodder”) suggests.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, from the last quarter of the 12th century; in Old Italian the word meant the food of animals, more rarely of people, a lure to catch or deceive, and material for lighting a fire.^[11] DELI's first dates are Bono Giamboni (before 1292) for tinder and Guittone (before 1294) for bait.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Dante still uses esca for food when doves at their feed “lasciano star l'esca” (leave the food alone), and Petrarch wants no other “esca” than his love.^[6][3] Figurative senses followed: deception (before 1347) and incitement (before 1374).^[5] Dante's prendete l'esca (you take the bait) became a phrase for yielding to temptation.^[12]

The tinder was later made from a fungus soaked in saltpetre, set on the flint and lit with sparks from the steel;^[13][8] Cesalpino names the fungus in the 16th century.^[13][8] The figure of tinder beside the fire gave dare esca and aggiungere esca al fuoco “to feed a passion or a quarrel”.^[13][14] Esca della vite or mal dell'esca is a fungal disease of the vine.^[3][15][10]

Timeline

• 1175–1200 – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur use esca.^[11]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses esca for tinder.^[5]
• Before 1294 – Guittone uses it for bait.^[5]
• Late 13th century – Adescare “to lure” is recorded.^[2]
• Before 1347 – Esca is recorded in the sense “deception”.^[5]
• Before 1374 – Ricciardo da Battifolle uses it for an incitement.^[5]
• 16th century – Cesalpino names the tinder fungus.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. bait: food, real or artificial, used to attract and catch animals, especially fish and birds: Il pescatore usava gamberetti come esca.^{[3][13][15][16][1]}
2. (figurative) A lure, an enticement meant to attract or deceive: gettare l'esca, prendere qualcuno all'esca.^{[3][13][14][1]}
3. (archaic, literary) Food, especially of animals, also figurative.^{[3][15][16][1]}
4. tinder: dry vegetable matter, chiefly from a fungus, once used to light a fire with flint and steel (pietra focaia and acciarino) or to fire gunpowder.^{[3][13][15][14][1]}
5. (figurative) An incitement that kindles a passion: dare esca.^[3][16]
6. (agriculture) Esca della vite, a fungal disease of the vine and other plants.^[3][15][13]

Word family

• adescare
• adescamento
• inescare
• innescare
• innesco

Related words

• esculento
• Latin esca
• Latin edo

Usage notes

Esca is also a form of the verb uscire.^[17] Common phrases are esca artificiale (artificial bait), aggiungere esca al fuoco (to add fuel to the fire) and prendere fuoco come l'esca (to flare up easily).^[3][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 21, 780
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 5, 302
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1530
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 5, 303
11. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org